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Somersetshire Puddings

A baked pudding made with eggs, sugar, butter, flour, vanilla, and served with a caramel sauce.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Somersetshire Puddings

Oven, in the book's wordsA rather hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a rather hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Prepare the batter

  1. Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).

  2. Cream the butter and sugar together.

  3. Add the eggs one at a time, beating thoroughly after each addition.

  4. Sift the flour onto a piece of paper and stir it lightly into the mixture.

  5. Butter small molds and fill each three-quarters full with the batter.

  6. Bake for about 20 minutes until firm on top, then turn out onto a hot dish.

Make the caramel sauce

  1. For the sauce, dip lumps of sugar in water, place in a saucepan, and heat until brown but not burnt.

  2. Add water to the caramelized sugar and boil until thick and syrupy.

  3. Prepare a souffle mold by drying it in the oven and pour the caramel into it, coating halfway up.

Make the custard and steam

  1. Beat the yolks and whites of the eggs with sugar in a basin.

  2. Bring the milk to a boil and stir quickly into the egg mixture.

  3. Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and steam gently for about an hour until firm.

  4. Ensure the water simmers gently while steaming.

Serve

  1. Serve the pudding hot or cold, allowing the caramel to run off and form a sauce.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Vanilla + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  5. Flour + vanillatop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,241 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Set the batter and custard, giving structure and richness as they firm when heated.
Butter
Adds richness and tenderness to the sponge-like batter.
Sugar
Sweetens the pudding and, when heated, browns to form the caramel sauce.
Self-raising flour
Provides the structure of the batter, which rises and sets as it bakes.
Milk
Adds moisture and softness to the custard, helping it set gently when steamed.

The step that matters

Caramelizing the sugar. Sugar heated past brown quickly turns bitter and burnt, and it can seize or harden once water is added. Watch the colour closely and stop when it is deep amber.

Swap the vanilla

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk):

  1. Vanillathe original
  2. Raisinfits about as well
  3. Figfits less well
  4. Coconutfits less well

Fit is the average pairing score against egg, sugar, butter, flour, milk. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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